Large Silver Ladle with Pouring Lip

A large silver ladle with a pouring lip, a rat-tail drop where the bowl meets the handle, and a rosewood handle is Spratling's holloware at full scale, a piece he called a soup ladle. The rat-tail drop is a refined silversmithing detail, reinforcing the joint while reading as ornament.

The pairing of a silver bowl with a rosewood handle is the device Morrill links to Spratling's affinity for Puiforcat, whose silver was set off by rosewood at the handles and finials (Morrill, p. 224). His holloware was hand-wrought in Taxco to a standard that changed little across his career (Morrill, p. 251). The ladle is recorded in the Cederwall and Riney Spratling Silver.

Large serving pieces survive less often than everyday flatware, and the combination of pouring lip, rat-tail drop, and rosewood handle marks this as a considered Spratling design.